This disclosure relates to automotive security, and more specifically, to devices, systems, and methods for protecting automotive electronic control units from cyber-attacks.
An electronic control unit (“ECU”) is a generic term for an embedded structure that controls one or more electrical structures or substructures within a transport vehicle. Due to the increasing complexity of automotive control schemes, to execute various vehicle control requirements ECUs must have the capability to connect to a number of external communication platforms. These external communication platforms include, for example, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, On-Board Diagnostics Generation Two (OBD-II), GPS, or Telematics. As each ECU in the automotive control scheme receives data packets from external communications platforms and internal sensors, it sends the data packets to a central network within the vehicle, composed of a vehicle bus or vehicle buses. Generally, automotive ECUs are composed of three main architectures. These architectures include (1) complex architectures, such as infotainment ECUs, (2) gateway architectures, which serve as a gateway between external communication platforms and the vehicle bus or vehicle buses, and (3) chain architectures, in which an automotive control scheme with multiple vehicle buses may forward data packets from one vehicle bus to another, for example an ECU forwarding data packets from a critical or operational vehicle bus to a non-critical vehicle bus. In a modern vehicle, two or even all three of these architectures may be present, and the same automotive control scheme may contain two or more complex architectures.
As a result of the nature of external communication platforms and the complexity of ECU architectures, automotive ECUs have become a target for cyber-attacks. Often, multiple supported external communication platforms are in communication with ECUs, which in turn have access to the central communications network within the automotive control scheme. While this interconnectivity produces desirable results for automobile consumers, it also creates a growing attack surface for hackers to exploit. The increasing vulnerability to attacks is further complicated by the complex ECU architectures, like infotainment ECUs. An infotainment ECU requires access to the vehicle bus to, for example, determine vehicle speed and thereby provide speed sensitive volume control, among other capabilities. Complex architectures use software systems such as Linux, Android and Java, which all provide rich attack vectors. Because the complex architectures provide direct access to the vehicle bus, a software vulnerability in the audio player of an infotainment ECU also creates the potential to use remote code execution to send attacks through the vehicle bus. This would allow hackers to exploit a variety of imperative functions within the automotive control scheme while the vehicle is in use, such as the antilock brakes or steering systems. Thus, there is a need in the art for improved methods and systems for protecting automotive ECUs from cyber-attacks.